This is one of my favorite speaking activities. (I’ve blogged about it before, but not on WordPress.) I’ve used this for the first day of class, or if I need to fill a few minutes at the end of class. So. . . here’s the plan:

Level: Upper beginner (can be adapted for any level)
Time: 15-30 mins
Materials: the handout of celebrities and blanks for questions (on my sidebar – titled “If you meet . . .”) This can also be done impromptu with no materials.

Give students the handout and talk about the celebrities. Then, tell them to think of 3 questions to ask each celebrity if they met that person. I usually give the students between 5 and 10 minutes to think of questions.

Next, I call up one student and put him in the middle of the room. I tell the class that this student is “Barack Obama” for example. Then, the students can ask their questions for Barack Obama. The student in the middle must pretend that he is the celebrity and answer the questions as best as he can. Even if your students haven’t written any questions, they will usually want to participate and come up with their own questions. It is always fun to hear what the students want to ask, and even funnier to hear what the other students come up with as a response. I find my upper beginner Turkish students really enjoy this activity. They seem to me more inclined to speak when they can act as another personality!

Enjoy! And don’t forget to download the handout from the sidebar . . . let me know if you use it!